McDonald's asks suppliers to stop using hog crates

View full sizeThe Humane Society of the United StatesFemale breeding pigs are in gestation crates at a Virginia factory farm owned by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods in Waverly, Va. McDonald's Corp. said Monday it will require its U.S. pork suppliers to provide plans by May to phase out the use of stalls that confine pregnant sows. Smithfield Foods had already announced plans to phase out the stalls.

DES MOINES, Iowa
-- McDonald's Corp. said Monday it will require its U.S. pork suppliers
to provide plans by May to phase out crates that tightly confine
pregnant sows, a move that one animal rights group predicted would have
"a seismic impact" on the industry.

The U.S. pork industry
generates sales of about $21 billion a year, according to the National
Pork Producers Council. McDonald's, with its Sausage McMuffin, McRib
sandwich and breakfast platters, is one of the nation's largest buyer of
pork products, consuming about 1 percent of the nation's total
production.

The fast food chain announced its decision in a joint
statement with the Humane Society of the United States, which hailed it
as a major victory in its fight against so-called gestation crates. The
animal welfare group has been pushing legislation in several states to
outlaw the crates that severely limit animals' movement.

"I think
it's going to have a seismic impact on the pork industry because it
signals to every other major food retailer that this is the morally
correct pathway, but it's also an economically feasible pathway," said
Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society's CEO.

Many of McDonald's
competitors, including Burger King, Wendy's and Hardee's, have already
begun to move away from suppliers who use gestation crates, and the fast
food chain's announcement came a day after Chipotle Mexican Grill made a
splash with a nearly two-and-a-half minute television commercial aired
during the Grammy's and touting its ban on pork produced using the
crates.

The commercial, an animated short film featuring the
Coldplay song "The Scientist" sung by Willie Nelson, was released online
in August. It features a farmer who experiences a crisis of conscience,
prompting him to abandon factory-like farming methods and free his
pigs, chickens and cows from confinement. It had more than 4.6 million
views on YouTube by Monday afternoon.

"We are changing the way
people think about and eat fast food," Steve Ells, founder, chairman and
co-CEO of Chipotle, said in a statement. "We have always understood the
importance of serving food that is raised right, but that is a
difficult thing to communicate with the limitations of traditional
advertising."

Unlike Chipotle, McDonald's is not ending its relationship with suppliers who use gestation crates.

"We're
really looking to see a positive change regarding moving away from
gestation stalls, and we think the best way to do that is working with
our suppliers," McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb said. "They're the
ones that actually have to take action to make this happen."

Some of McDonald's suppliers and other major pork producers have already announced plans to phase out gestation crates.

Smithfield
Foods Inc., the world's largest pork producer, and Hormel Foods Corp.
have both said they would stop using them at company-owned farms by
2017. Cargill Inc. says it has already widely adopted group housing for
pregnant sows.

McDonald's said it is seeking reports from all its
suppliers by May on measures being taken to end the use of gestation
crates. After a review, it will decide how to proceed.

Even such a
cautious approach was welcomed by animal rights groups, given
McDonald's huge buying power. Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy
For Animals, a Chicago-based nonprofit animal rights group, said he
hoped the company would take a similar approach with egg suppliers, who
often keep chickens in similar cramped cages.

"They do have the
power to move an entire industry, to set an example that other food
providers often follow," Runkle said. "We hope it's the beginning of the
end of these cruel and abusive practices."

Pig farmers keep
pregnant sows in gestation crates in an effort to reduce aggressive
behavior by separating them from other hogs and feeding them
individually.

The National Pork Producers Council, which has been
concerned about the possibility of federal legislation limiting farming
practices, said studies have shown individual and group housing can
provide good care for sows. It said it will help McDonald's assess
housing practices, and the most important part of Monday's announcement
was that the change was driven by the market and not by government
mandates.

"Pork industry customers have expressed a desire to see
changes in how pigs are raised," the group said in a statement. "Farmers
are responding and modifying their practices accordingly. That process
is effective, it is efficient and doesn't require an act of Congress."

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